How to unlock a blackberry phone in 10 simple steps

We got a blackberry from US and didn’t feel the need to unlock the phone till my E51 refused to power up after a total battery drain. I was left with no cell phone situation – which trust me is a very bad condition in the era of smartphones and 3G on almost all carriers (even if I was going to be in home all day long). So the blackberry was taken out from its 6 month long hibernation and I was initially doubtful if it would even charge up for use. Thankfully, the blackberry didn’t let me down! Next step was to unlock the phone. There are several guys in India in every gully who claim to unlock US phones of any make/model/carrier. Few of them might just do it right but in most cases, they end up removing the basic software and corrupting the phone along with all those dear apps or return the phone to you saying it can’t be done with this model – after holding your phone for at least a couple of weeks. We had a bad experience with two such guys with our iPhone – it still yearns to be unlocked!

So this time I decided that I was going to give it a try myself with the help of Google and YouTube. I took the bold step because, I had two blackberry of the same make but with a single battery (so in any case I could just use one blackberry at a time), therefore even if I screwed one up, there was a backup anyway! I was amazed to find that there were so many vendors who could help me unlock the blackberry and I must say I was mistrusting initially but nevertheless took the chance and I am really happy that I took the chance! Here is the steps that I followed to unlock the blackberry.

How I unlocked the blackberry

Step #1: Find the IMEI number of your mobile phone. This can be done by typing *#06# on the key pad

Step #2: Go to the below website:  www.unlockcellphonecode.com. The best part about using unlockcellphonecode.com is that they are the cheapest amongst all others on the internet. The cost for my blackberry was just $9.99 which is pretty cheap compared to what the local unlock-wallas ask for. Here you will see a form where you have to enter the following details:

 

 

 

* Select the country and carrier database  from the drop down list

* Select the right carrier/provider of your mobile

* Select the right blackberry model

* Enter the IMEI number – I was a little apprehensive about giving out the IMEI number- but now I know it was completely safe to do so.

Step #3: Click on Add to Cart

Step #4: You can pay through PayPal or through Google checkout

You will get a confirmation upon payment along with an invoice number and you will also get an email confirmation. You will also receive a user name and password along with the link where you can check the code. Follow the instructions in the email. This e-mail will be where you will also get the unlock code.

Then comes the waiting part.  Since this was an online transaction and as there was no contact number available on the website, the waiting part was a bit scary I must admit. They say that codes are available in 2-4 hours time, but it took 8 hours in my case. So don’t panic if you don’t see the code in you inbox within 4 or 6 hours.

Once you get the code, you will have to do 2 simple steps to unlock the phone:

Step #5: Remove the old SIM card from the blackberry and power it on (You can either have the new SIM card inserted or you can do this with no SIM in the phone – that makes no difference)

Step #6: Go to Options –> Advanced Options –> SIM Card. Now enter the following in the keypad: meppd

You will see that the Network option shows “Active”. This means that the phone is locked to the network of the provider

Step #7: Now enter the following on your keypad: mepp alt2 without any space between them. 

Step #8: You will see “Enter Network MEP Code (256 left)” This number 256 is the number of attempts for you to enter the MEP Code. You are lucky if you have these many attempts left. But if you exhaust all of those attempts, the phone gets hard locked to the carrier and there will the nothing you can do to unlock the phone.

Step #9: Enter the unlock code that you received in the email. This will unlock the phone and you will now see that the Network also shows “Disabled”. This is perfectly alright, it just means your phone is no longer tied to the carrier

Step#10: If you had not inserted the new SIM card earlier, do it now. Usually the right carrier gets selected automatically. If it does not go to Options—> Mobile Network and search for available network and choose the right carrier from among the list.

Now you will have an unlocked Blackberry!!

Did this help you? Have you unlocked through any other better way? Do share your thoughts!

iPod 4 screen glitches following iOS 4.3 update - What to do about it?

 

Just when the users with iOS 4.3 update in their iPhones / iPods are still to come out of the DST bug problem (well there has been no fix from Apple – restarting the device fixed the issue in most cases), the next issue has cropped up. Many iPod touch users are reporting weird glitches in their screen graphics following the iOS 4.3 update in their iPod. The glitches are more apparent in the lock screen and many users have also reported icon overlapping and other problems with pixel alignment. Hope Apple fixes the issues with the OS update soon – before the droid lovers have a field day with this!

What should I do if I see the glitches in my iPod?

The best thing to do if you see the glitches is to report it to Apple. They are the right people to do something about this. Please report the issue in any one of the two Apple discussion links below:

Apple discussion link 1

Apple discussion link 2

 

iPod 4 Glitch following iOS4.3 update

 

Are you experiencing these glitches too? Share your videos/experiences in comments.

iPhone / iPod DST Bug–How to fix the clock

After Android went through the malware apps last week, its time for Apple to take the beating now. On Sunday March 13, while the clock must have moved an hour forward to adjust for the DST, Apple iPhones / iPads / iPods decided to go back by an hour due to a bug in the iPhone DST adjustments. Almost all iPhone owners relying on their phones to keep up with appointments and even waking up with its alarm, were alarmed to see that they were not on time! iSiC_XXIII, a twitter user vented his frustrations this way in twitter “Thanks iPod Touch and iPhone for making me late to work! DST is not working properly”. Seemingly there were no issues with most of the other phones including Android in adjusting themselves to the DST settings. The same bug is expected to affect the Europeans on March 27.

What’s the Fix?

*  Restarting the phone has solved the issue in 99% of cases.

*  You can otherwise switch the phone briefly to airplane mode and then back to normal mode, This has also worked for some people.

Time to get a good old alarm clock!!

Did the DST bug bite you too?? What did you do to resolve the issue – Do share your experience here!

VMware view client App for iPad–next leap from RDP / VNC Citrix and Wyse apps in market

 

One of the primary arguments that many people have against owning an iPad or even better the latest iPad 2 is that this 10 inch piece will never grow up in capacity to handle what their desktop / laptop can handle in terms of work. I must say that either these people are unaware of the business apps that are available in market or haven’t worked out how to use them to perfection. Yes I am talking about the VNC / RDP apps that are abundant in iTunes apps market. VMware has joined the bandwagon (in league with Citrix and Wyse) now making it bigger and better with their VMware view app for iPad.

 

RDP / VNC apps for iPad / iPhone / iPod

As this post is not a review on the RDP and VNC (Virtual Network Computing) apps that are available in the market, I am not presenting an exhaustive list here. The two apps I have given below are arguably the best in this category in the market

1. iTap RDP (Remote Desktop for Windows) By HLW – Paid App ($11.99) – Use this app to take RDP of your machine when you are connected to the local network. Or if you can get a public IP from your internet provider, you can set your laptop/desktop with a static IP and you can then access your machine from anywhere in the world from your ipad. Once connected you will actually be working on you laptop/desktop with its hardware resources!

2. Desktop Connect By Antecea Inc. – Paid App ($14.99) – This has the choice of either connecting through VNC or through RDP. The same idea of public IP holds good here too to make your machine available from anywhere in the world. One good feature about this app is that you can turn off the touchscreen option and then your whole ipad becomes the giant touch pad and can be used to control mouse pointer movements (if you have difficulty in point touching)

TeamViewer By TeamViewer – free App. I know that this app cannot be even mentioned in the same breath with the RDP / VNC apps but if you are not too freaky about security (when you accept team viewer policy it means you allow your session visibility to team viewer), this one will just suit the bill for accessing your machine over the internet. But the only drawback I can think of is that, you cannot log your machine off and team viewer must be left running all the time. So don’t go sharing the Partner id and password!

What does VMware view do?

The VMware view client for iPad that has been launched on Wednesday (9th March 2011) and will now enable enterprise users access their workstations from iPad (I can’t start imagining how happy my husband’s going to be about this). Simply put, if the virtual machines are available in the cloud in a data center, you can access them from your iPad using the FREE APP from VMware (VMware View for iPad By SpringSource). VMware likes to call this a ‘finely tuned solution’ with PCoIP protocol for a faster and smoother user experience – even over 3G!! This app is compatible with external bluetooth keyboard and external display.  With the latest iPad 2 boasting HDMi, the display can be over a wide screen LED TV.

Special features of VMware View App

Once you have the app installed in your iPad, just click on the VMware view icon (middle icon in the bottom row) to connect to a virtual machine by entering its IP, followed by the username and password in the next screen.

The desktops that are provisioned to your user accounts will show up. Click on the one that you want to connect to and the desktop comes up on the ipad

The interesting feature that enhances the usability of this app is the drop down menu that appears on the top. From the drop down menu, you can choose the following options:

1. Keyboard: Opens up the keyboard for typing within applications such as Microsoft word from within the machine

2. Trackpad: Using this trackpad is similar to using the touchpad in any laptop. Controls the mouse pointer

3. Control Pads: This opens up the control keys, function keys, alt keys and other usability buttons like page up and page down that is most commonly used in a windows machine. Interesting yeah!

4. Gesture Help: A Help on what gestures on iPad means what to the Virtual machine.

5. Options: From here you can choose the touchpad sensitivity and enable / disable tool tips.

6. Disconnect: Disconnect from the virtual machine using this button from drop down menu on top. You can reconnect to the virtual machine and start from where you left off from you ipad or from your workstation.

 

UPDATE: Check out VMware official blog on the VMware view app for iPad at VMware website – link here

 

I think this app comes as a boon to most of the business and enterprise users who have the maximum inclination to buying an iPad. Do you? Are you already using of RDP / VNC apps - What do you think of this app?

Android Malware Apps with Trojan Rootkit–Details of the Apps and how to protect your android from Malware Apps

Google has now come to face the biggest problems of open sourcing – malware apps are in circulation. These apps disguise themselves as if they are genuine and legitimate apps. More than 50 apps have been pulled from Android market after they were identified to have malicious code in them. Which means, if you download any of these apps, it will be automatically deleted from your phone. This malware attack has showcased one of the biggest weakness of Android OS – no app moderation. I had mentioned about the certificate errors that we were receiving on the market.android pages for most of the apps in my post on the Cricket apps for android. Furthermore, when you choose to download and install an app from the android.market website  it happens as smoothly as downloading it from the phone’s android market and there is absolutely no authorization prompted at the device end. Even my Nokia E51 (which is like a 3 yrs old model) has a second layer of authorization at the device level to install an app that was chosen from Nokia apps website!

What does the malware App do?

Once you install one of the malware apps, it will root the device via rageagainstthecage or exploid. This can then steal the device data and the personal data and transmit it to a remote server when you will still be playing with the new free app! The details that are stolen are:

* IMEI

* IMSI

* Product ID

* Language

* Personal Details (like user ID and other data you have in the phone)

The scariest bit is that, it just not stops from stealing the data but, it acts as a open backdoor – which means, now more malicious code can be downloaded into your phone without your knowledge!

How do I protect my android?

Lifehacker has a detail post on how to tell if an app is a malware or not – this one is a worthy read to protect your phone from future attacks. However, if you already are a victim of this malware attack (Google did a great job of pulling out these apps in a matter of 5 minutes from the first report – though this deletes the app from the phone, it can do nothing about the malicious code that might have been already downloaded through the backdoor), then you have either of the following two options:

* Try doing a reset to factory defaults. Yes this means losing all the precious data and apps that you have collected so far, but there is no choice other than this.

* Taking the phone back to your service provider (hopefully they’ll replace it with a new phone)

What is remote disabling?

When I said Google had pulled these apps back, it means, these apps were deleted from the users phones without taking any permission from the users for doing so. Not that we are complaining for removing the malware, but this posed the bigger question of how Google can tamper with the apps of an user’s device without the permission from the user. It was not long ago that Amazon had to face the user’s wrath for remotely deleting a book from Kindle across the country. Apple also got into a tight spot for remotely disabling iPhones  that were running on unauthorized OS (Update: Apple has applied for patents to do this now). So it is another question that Google has to answer for

What are the malicious Android Apps?

There were 21 malicious apps by one publisher Myournet – this publisher has now been entirely removed from Android market

• Falling Down
• Super Guitar Solo
• Super History Eraser
• Photo Editor
• Super Ringtone Maker
• Super Sex Positions
• Hot Sexy Videos
• Chess
•下坠滚球_Falldown
• Hilton Sex Sound
• Screaming Sexy Japanese Girls
• Falling Ball Dodge
• Scientific Calculator
• Dice Roller
• 躲避弹球
• Advanced Currency Converter
• App Uninstaller
• 几何战机_PewPew
• Funny Paint
• Spider Man
• 蜘蛛侠

Apart from this list, there are 30 more identified to be malicious by the security app Lookout. These were by the publishers ‘Kingmall2010’ and ‘we20090202’

• owling Time
• Advanced Barcode Scanner
• Supre Bluetooth Transfer
• Task Killer Pro
• Music Box
• Sexy Girls: Japanese
• Sexy Legs
• Advanced File Manager
• Magic Strobe Light
• 致命绝色美腿
• 墨水坦克Panzer Panic
• 裸奔先生Mr. Runner
• 软件强力卸载
• Advanced App to SD
• Super Stopwatch & Timer
• Advanced Compass Leveler
• Best password safe
• 掷骰子
• 多彩绘画
• Finger Race
• Piano
• Bubble Shoot
• Advanced Sound Manager
• Magic Hypnotic Spiral
• Funny Face
• Color Blindness Test
• Tie a Tie
• Quick Notes
• Basketball Shot Now
• Quick Delete Contacts
• Omok Five in a Row
• Super Sexy Ringtones
• 大家来找茬
• 桌上曲棍球
• 投篮高手

As long as Google leaves the android apps market un-moderated, use your better sense when downloading and installing any apps. Take the necessary precautions and have the security app installed in your droid to add the extra layer of security!

Facebook goes secure with HTTPS

Facebook has at last implemented HTTPS. Facebook is one social networking site that is most popular among people of all age groups and all walks of life. Also this is one networking site with loads of personal info which in most cases is unwittingly shared in the whole wide web. There has been many pleas to make this a secure site over internet in the recent past and two recent events have at last opened the eyes of Facebook developers to include security feature for facebook:

1. Hacking of Mark Zuckerberg’s account

2. Stealing of Facebook passwords of Tasmanian activists by Tasmanian Government (They had inserted a JScript to Fb home page)

With internet abundant with hacking tools (Firefox recently released a plugin for session hacking – Firesheep), this was a long time due!

Well here is how you enable the security:

1.Go to Account Settings

2.Under that look for Account Security and select to enable HTTPS

And here is how Facebook is adding the extra layer of security:

1. Social Authentication: You will have to verify yourself by identifying the profile photo of one of your friends (this is a random generation from your friends list).

This might get tricky and difficult if your friends have celebrity photos or cartoon characters as their profile image

2. Captcha authentication: You will have to verify with a captcha authentication when you open Facebook from out side your home country

However, there are some fall backs in Facebook’s HTTPS implementation. Those are:

1. The loading of page takes longer time than usual when you go through HTTPS

2. Some third party applications do not use HTTPS and open with only HTTP – this is another place where your details are extracted. So be careful about the 3rd party applications that you wander out to from Fb.

3. Default page that gets opened when you just type Facebook and Ctrl+click on the address bar is NOT HTTPS. So you might want to enter the entire URL starting with https:// or just add that to your favorites.

Whatever be the case, we can be happy that Fb has implemented the security feature and I want to believe that they will go on to improve this as well – just how they went about improving Facebook over the period.